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T O P I C R E V I E W

Robert Pearlman

From the Rockford (IL) Register Star:

quote:An Apollo spacesuit, used for training by Neil Armstrong 37 years ago, was on board the Discovery space shuttle for NASA’s first Fourth of July launch. When the shuttle returns from its scheduled 12-day mission, the suit will be shipped to its new home, Historic Auto Attractions...

[Historic Auto Attraction's curator Wayne] Lensing acquired the suit a month ago and immediately sent it to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for repair. The NASA people took one look at the suit, Lensing said, and offered to include it on the Discovery mission, the second shuttle mission since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

The spacesuit is not listed as in the mission's Official Flight Kit and a call to JSC has them looking into the article but saying they aren't aware of any such item on-board.

A message for the reporter, Sarah Roberts, to contact collectSPACE has been left, which will be followed by the same to the museum.

Greggy_D

That sounds mighty odd. It would be hard to believe (for me at least) that NASA could actually get that suit on the shuttle within a month's time.

Rob Sumowski

Any word from that newspaper yet? That's odd, as one would think they would check into this some more...Rob

benguttery

I'd certainly be surprised if any museum or archivist would let this object out of their site. As they are assigned the job of caring for objects, sending one on a spaceflight is not being a good steward of an historical object. Ben

Greggy_D

Any update on this story?

Robert Pearlman

The reporter never responded but NASA confirmed, the article was false. There wasn't an Armstrong spacesuit aboard STS-121.

Greggy_D

Amazing. Doesn't the general press adhere to fact checking any longer?

Thanks for the update Robert.

Hart Sastrowardoyo

Well, yeah, we should. Particularly if it's a name that rings a bell like Armstrong. Note that her story is one-sided in that there's no NASA Voice, which should have been in there, IMHO, and should have been one of the first phone calls made. ("Hey, NASA? This guy sez Armstrong's suit is gonna fly. Is this true?")

Wonder what's gonna happen to her. She can probably claim she was fooled by a source, but that doesn't fly (no pun intended) against that she should have checked the story more thoroughly.

Greggy_D

I think I may contact her editor. These types of stories do not fly with me and the public deserves better. It would have taken her 2 whole minutes to dial up JSC to verify the story. Also, I think it speaks volumes that she did not respond to Robert's request.

When you visit the site it says the Neil Armstrong exhibit is coming soon... don't hold your breath though. If it does appear we would all be interested in seeing some photos, thanks.

NickSpaceman

ea757grrl

quote:Originally posted by Go4Launch:Well gosh, it MUST be true -- it's on display in the "Kennedy Day in Dallas" exhibit!

Heh heh. It'd be too easy to make a conspiracy crack here!

I'd be curious to see photos when it goes on display. I hope it's better than that "faithful replica" of the Lincoln X-100 presidential parade car they have on display...

jodie

cfreeze79

quote:Originally posted by Greggy_D:Amazing. Doesn't the general press adhere to fact checking any longer?

Something my dad (a journalist, as well as historic researcher) will often say: A reporter that messes up some facts, but meets their deadlines, will keep their job - a reporter who gets all the facts right, but misses a few deadlines, won't.